UK Tabloids Lose Readers

News, 09 January 2006

UK newspaper readers may be losing their appetite for tabloid sensationalism, according to the latest readership figures.

The National Readership Survey for the third quarter of 2005 shows reader numbers at the nation's most popular 'red-top', News Corporation-owned The Sun, falling by 712,000 in the year ended September 2005.

The downward trend was followed by the Daily Mirror, which lost 519,000 readers in the same period, while the Daily Star saw its reader numbers fall by 110,000.

However, the NRS reports that quality titles - once known as broadsheets until most changed to smaller formats - increased reader numbers as a result of their transformations.

The Times, also part of the News Corporation empire, was the main beneficiary of the broadsheet revamps, recording a readership rise of 152,000.

All rights reserved including database rights. This electronic file is for the personal use of authorised users based at the subscribing company's office location. It may not be reproduced, posted on intranets, extranets or the internet, e-mailed, archived or shared electronically either within the purchaser's organisation or externally without express written permission from WARC.

Email this content

Send colleagues a link to this content.
To send to more than one recipient, put a comma between email addresss.